Tag: food/dining

Support Local Restaurants or an opportunity to eat well at home

Note- This was typed up 3/17/2020. Everything subject to change with the rules of how governments and businesses respond to COVID-19.

So we are to hunker down in the house, but every so often you need to get out. Why not support some local TC businesses and still enjoy the goodness that is them?

ANXO at 3rd & Florida NW in Truxton Circle will be selling ciders and wines to-go. Their Instagram page has more info. Also you can support them by buying gift cards, so you can enjoy them when things are back to normal.

Republic Cantina on the other end of the TC on N St. NW is also doing take out. They are offering their cafe and dinner menu items for take out.

Am I missing any other Truxton Circle biz in the TC?

Over in Bloomingdale:

So Red Hen, you know Michelin mentioned them… finally you can get take out at this usually fine dine in restaurant. I’m licking my lips looking at their dinner menu. They are also selling gift cards for when happier days come around.

Tiber Creek, not mentioned by a fab French tire company, via their Instagram (I am not signed up for the instas, I’m old and I’m annoyed I have to go to Instagram to find things out because info is not on your main web page or Twitter) will be doing take-out.

Bacio Pizza– Take out only (stupid Instagram info).

Michelin level restaurants make you food-

Seeing the opportunity that Red Hen presented, a normally sit down restaurant I can’t go to because I’d need a sitter because the 2 year old has terrible table manners, is now offering take out food. So that got me wondering what other places of that high caliber, that require a sitter, are providing provisions? So I took a look at the Michelin Guide for DC and saw these. If it ain’t mentioned, they either are closed or haven’t mentioned anything.

Kinship– at 1015 7th St NW, the website says tomorrow (3/18/2020) they will be doing to go service. So watch that space.

The Dabney– They have take out, 3 courses for $45. From their site “Orders will be taken by phone from 11am – 2pm daily by phone only for that evening’s menu; there are limited number of dinners available. We are unable to modify the set menu, and payment will be processed upon order. In addition, a concise selection of wines by the bottle are available for purchase. ”

I have no idea what Jose Andres is doing in his awesomeness, but I doubt the community kitchen offerings at minibar is going to be as amazeballs as normal minibar.

Masseria– They will bring food to you. You just have to order before 3pm, delivery between 4-6pm.

Gravitas– They plan to offer pickup and delivery options.

Rose’s Luxury– They already have the Rose’s at Home service, which is currently offering drop off and Pick Up service. And there is the take away menu. The Pineapples and Pearls site will point you to this service.

Maydan– They have to go but I have no idea what is available.(instagram info)

Komi and Little Serow–  Get carry out at Little Serow and Komi plans to implement Happy Gyro later this week.

Little Pearl– See Rose’s Luxury and their evening takeout menu.

Sushi Taro– (g*d**m Instagram). Pick up menu from 12-8pm, $30. See the stupid instagram page for options.

 

 

 

Now imagine it with chairs

Intrior view
Well after work, went to Beau Thai at 1700 New Jersey Avenue NW and had me some Pad Thai. I’m full. It was good.
If you have an early menu the phone number is wrong. It seems the phone number is 205-377-5329. I asked about that 205 bit, but apparently it’s 205 and not 202. 202-536-5636
Any way, pad thai.
Beau Thai's Pad Thai and Beau Thai owner
The food came fast as she’s got a couple of people in the kitchen, so she differs from her brother Taw (Thai X-ing) in that way. When asked about him, she mentions that he doesn’t have delivery but she hopes to do delivery soon.

Beau Thai- Definitely Monday

I saw some movement in Beau Thai on the way back home. I got excited. excited for nothing and yes, guy from the city, I’m blaming you. Guy from the City was excited that we in the neighborhood are all excited but he blames the hold up on some office closing 3 minutes early. So he says, “Definitely, Monday.”

The owner, she did not look happy. She looked seriously unhappy.

She’s got a bunch of food she can’t serve because well, it would have helped if Guy from the City had shown up Thursday and gotten her a Certificate of Occupancy or what ever his magic seal of approval. He knows we’re all blaming him, but you know the process of what it takes to open a business in DC is cloudy from the standpoint of a citizen. We don’t know what all the hoops and hurdles are that stop a business that we’re starving for, from opening because one of the city offices closed shop early on a Friday.

So, we’ll see, Monday.

Beau Thai Maybe Thursday, Maybe Friday, We’ll see

I ran into the owner of Beau Thai after work. She was waiting for the C of something, I gather the person is the last ok from the city to go ahead and start serving us food.
Anyway I asked for a menu. We’ll see how Mr. Scanner is acting later tonight. Hopefully the last inspector will bother to show up this evening and give the go ahead. If he doesn’t show up today, then tomorrow, pushing the opening back to Friday.
The menu has two different prices for lunch and dinner one dish meals and entrees. I remember when Thai X-ing opened the lunch service went away due to a lack of people to support it. Anyway it’s got some usual favs, Pad Thai, Satay, Panang Curry, Red & Green Curries, Larb Gai, and spring rolls. Appetizers run between $5 and$ 6, one dish meals $8 or $10 and entrees $9 or $11.Beau Thai Door 1

My weekend

Well Saturday was the BACA clean up which Caryn over the BACA blog mentions the turnout was low. Well I didn’t help matters by not posting the announcement earlier, though I got it earlier. Also there were supposed to be fliers about it, but of a neighborhood of our size flier distribution takes a while. Yes, it doesn’t seem like it but you never realize how many friggin’ houses are just on one side of the street until you have to place a flier in every single one of those doors. Personally, I don’t care for the stuff the flier in the fence method, as the wind can take those away. I took on the top triangular part of the TC till my bag got ripped. There wasn’t much to do as we have a few neighbors who regularly clean the sidewalks.
Before I picked up my bag I was walking with Brett to 1st & P, where BACA normally starts these things, trying to explain the “Broken Window” theory and why clean ups are important. I’m hoping B. was playing Devil’s advocate when he questioned the effectiveness of a clean up and the ‘broken windows’ theory. Quick summary, trash adds to the perception of crime and disorder.
After the clean up I ran my usual Saturday errands, one being the warehouse area on Florida Ave NE. At US Beef I ran into Ms. Frozen Tropics, Elise, who had a hunk of meat for carnitas. I had a bag full of drumsticks for curry, two pounds of butter, for making ghee, and a frozen boneless lamb. I mentioned that the frozen whole chicken there was rubbery, but the fresh chicken was quite good. Elise mentioned she was going to hit Mexican Fruit next for limes. But there were limes near the register at US Beef and I had already been to Mexican Fruit, whose limes were lackluster that day, so we both picked up bags of lemons and limes. I was going to make marmalade, Elise margaritas. Somewhere in the middle of that a friend of Elise came up with a small tub of tofu from a nearby store. I expressed my confusion with the warehouse area of knowing which stores will sell to you. Apparently there is a tofu place between US Beef and Sam Wang, you go up to the window, you tell the guy you want the white tub, and for $4 you get a small gallonish tub of tofu. Half shopping experience. Half speakeasy.
Sunday, was chicken Sunday. Chicken stock. Chicken Marsala. Chicken Biryani. Buttery Chicken. And chicken curry. Somewhere in there I decided to clean 1/2 of my alley, with some help from a neighbor. The street was busy with open houses. The house that was under contract, is back on the market. Then a new neighbor has decided to move to the west coast and rent out his house so there were people dropping by to check the place out.

Boundary Stone Tavern/Pub


Hidden tin ceiling
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

Well Scott Roberts has a much better description of the proposed pub for Bloomingdale because the man knows what questions to ask. All I asked about was noise, because the rear of the location backs up to several residential bedrooms. I was told that they expect to keep the noise on Rhode Island Ave., not a quiet street mind you.
You can ask what the heck is this photo I have attached here. Well, it is the cool looking tin ceiling that is hidden behind the dropped ceiling at 116 Rhode Island Avenue NW/Boundary Stone. What the owners would like to do (provided they get approved for the liquor license) is put in a mezzanine as there is about 10-11 extra feet in some spots. The building housing this proposed pub is in the former Sylvan Theater and the landlord for this building seems to be amenable to improving and adding value to his property (as opposed to some other commercial landowners who are crazy).
The pub owners are hopeful about when they may be able to make this come to life. But before any of that there is the ABC liquor dance between the ANC, the neighbors and the owners. The ANC will (regardless of support) protest the license, the owners will agree to a voluntary agreement, someone will go on and on about how there will be drunkards in the streets and that we don’t need more liquor in our neighborhood.
PoP also has a post on this too.

Can I boycott a place I’d probably never get to

Some of ya’ll are aware of the kerfuffle regarding U Street Girl and the owner of a wine bar threatened legal action. She has recommended that others join her in not patronizing or promoting the 14th Street business. Okay.
I totally agree on principle, but honestly I haven’t even gotten to the wine bars I actually want to go to, like Cork, so I don’t know what use that would be. Also as a fan of redemption and forgiveness I hope that the owner of Du Vin Osteria, David Shott, will make an honest effort to undo the damage done.

Hopefully, we’ll have none of that in nearby (to me) Bloomingdale. Tonight there is going to be an open house Q&A for a proposed bar/pub/wateringhole at 116 Rhode Island Ave NW between 6 and 8pm. I guess it would be a good place to unwind after some yoga ’round the corner. Seriously, I’m looking forward to the development, growth and appearances of all the small businesses in the Bloomingdale and eastern Shaw area.

Big Bear Beer II

Sometime after all the youth/school related stuff at the BACA meeting, about an hour into it, we finally got to Big Bear and their general ideas of pursuing an ABC liquor license. There were two persons from Bog Bear, one being Matt Sellers, the other guy a blond barista… now if it is a guy do you call them baristas? Not baristos?
Anyway. Big Bear is aiming for a CR license. For those of you unfamiliar with the wonderful world of ABC licenses, a class C Restaurant license is one for places where at least 45% of revenues come from food sales. It is different from the class of licenses for bars or corner markets. The was one objection mentioned, coming from a Baptist minister, presenting his concerns about people getting drunk and hanging out in the park. This was countered by the Episcopalian church secretary reminding him of Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding at Cana, turning water into wine.
There were questions about Big Bear expanding and the space they have. The bear is kind of landlocked and the space above is leased to tenants, so in the near future, nope. Maybe, years down the road. Another question was the issue of vagrants/ neighbor characters. Characters do drop by to get a glass of water and to use the bathroom and for the most part they don’t cause a problem.
The idea is Big Bear has a vibe as a cafe, hang out and they have no intention of becoming a bar, they just want to expand their food service options. I asked the barista (m) if the idea is to offer something like Teaism, and he answered in the affirmative. As far as I can tell despite having a small park area and a restaurant/bar across the street, the Penn Quarter Teaism fails to produce drunkards rolling out of its doors.

Big Bear Beer?

I noticed this in the announcement for today’s BACA meeting:

(b) Ms. Elizabeth Lyttleton, an Eckington resident who provides occasional consulting services to Big Bear Café, asked for time on our agenda to apprise our group of the status of the cafe’s current efforts to acquire a license from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. I am advised that Ms. Lyttleton developed a scheduling conflict that won’t allow her to attend Monday’s meeting in person; however, she plans to identify someone else to make her expected presentation and to answer any questions that it might generate.

TODAY! 7PM Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, in the basement cafeteria.